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Poetic expertise represents a unique area of artistic creativity that can inform our theoretical understanding of the creative process. Studies of poetic expertise also shed new light on the similarities and differences that exist between innovative concept exploration and evaluation processes that arise in artistic pursuits and those that take place in more technology-oriented design practices. Most of the current knowledge in the area of poetry writing derives from autobiographical accounts from expert poets (Curtis, 1996) or from studies of novice poets (Groenendijk et al., 2008). Although such evidence is useful in identifying issues that may be associated with poetic expertise, it nevertheless remains critical to pursue in-depth empirical work focusing on the activities of expert poets themselves. To achieve such an empirical understanding I have conducted a programme of research to examine poetic expertise with a close eye on exploring the parallels between creative processes in the poetry domain and those in the design domain. My research methodology is threefold. First, I conducted interviews with poets to gather some reflective data on their creative processes and professional practice. Second, I conducted a laboratory-based study of expert poets undertaking writing tasks while verbally reporting their thoughts using a 'think aloud' technique. These data replicated and extended the findings from the interview study. Third, I conducted a final interview based study with highly-respected, award-winning UK poets who were considered to be exceptional within their field given their major international standing. The focus of the thesis was on reporting key elements of design thinking that may well be generic aspects of creative endeavour aimed at producing novel and valued outputs, rather than being restricted to core design disciplines. Finally, I developed a model of poetic composition that was informed by a theoretical understanding of design thinking.